59

I stand at the edge of the cliffs.

My phone is in my hand. I'm ready to call Hawkins and tell him what he wants to hear. I killed them, I am Hyde, I forced Ava into it, I have no fucking regrets about it. Whatever mysterious source is feeding Hawkins false information won't hold up to my confession.

Soon, Hawkins will have agreed to clear Ava's name, and I'll be a broken lifeless body far below this clifftop.

The water below looks cold. It's swirling, black, gray, and white in the moonlight. It feels like the contents of my mind. I'm half wracking my brain for any distant, buried image of Henrik dying at my hands. I'm half begging myself not to remember.

The brain is a dangerous fucking weapon. That's the first thing you learn about psychiatry. But I knew it long before I became a therapist. That was Dr Blackwood's twisted gift to me, that knowledge. And I killed him for it.

Just like I killed Henrik.

Just like I threatened to do to Ava.

I once believed I would chase Ava to the ends of the earth just to get her to play my game of cat and mouse with me. Now I've pushed her away from me. All I can pray is that she doesn't forget what I've torn out of her. Don't turn away from your beautiful, shining darkness, Ava Cain.

But god doesn't answer the prayers of men like me.

The water swirls far beneath me. The sound roars in my ears. I can't stand another minute living inside my treacherous, broken mind.

I step closer to the edge.

Time for my final confession.